WHO'S GOT A SECRET IN SECRET INVASION? #1 – The GOOD, the BAD, and the SKRULLY By Bruce! MacIntosh
Have you read the first issue of Marvel's big event, Secret Invasion, yet? I'll bet you were waiting to hear what your favorite writer-of-all-things-comics had to say first, right? Good call! Wait no longer, dear reader, because this relatively spoiler-free review is going to tell you everything you need to know about SI #1. No holds-barred: The Good, the Bad, and the Skrully!
The Good: Writer for the series, Brian Michael Bendis jumps right in to the story and doesn't get bogged down in a lengthy recap of all the events that have gone before. (For a lengthy recap of all the events that have gone before, please see WHO'S GOT A SECRET IN SECRET INVASION - Episode #0 - Prologue.) He assumes that if you're reading this, you already know the basic premise, and he starts right off with changing heroes into Skrulls and blowing things up.
The Bad: Writer Brian Michael Bendis jumps right in to the story and doesn't bother to give new readers any kind of recap. It assumes that everyone already knows the basic premise, and starts right off with changing heroes into Skrulls and blowing things up.
So, while the story wastes no time jumping straight into the action, it may leave a little too much to the imagination. If you're a true-green Marvel Zombie, and you know exactly what's going on because you've bought and read all the pre-Invasion tie-ins, then you know exactly what is going on when the first page features the raised visor of Tony Stark's helmet, and his warnings that we're all in trouble because anyone could be a Skrull.
But... if you only buy a few Marvel titles, or even just half of them (the wrong half, in this case) then the first issue of Secret Invasion will leave you scratching your head.
The ending (which I won't spoil, in case you haven't read this one yet) made my jaw drop… a little, wondering what to expect from the second issue. On the other hand, I've had the benefit of recently going through and reading every issue even remotely related to the impending Secret Invasion and I wrote a detailed summary of these events for the Pulse last week. (If you didn't read it the first time I gave you the link, Click Here.) So I have a pretty good idea of what is going on in this neck of the Marvel Universe. But some parts of the first issue even left me wondering if I missed something!
Which reminds me of a piece of advice my father gave me - which I try to implement in all my articles: "If you can't amaze them with your intellect, then baffle them with BS." (Although he was rarely that PG-rated.) So, I put down Secret Invasion #1 - admittedly only Bendis' first official issue of this event - wondering whether the feeling I had was amazement over a masterpiece of storytelling, or if Joe Q had just talked me into an eight-month long shell game. Which brings up the next bit of…
The Good: If the first issue is any indication, the next eight months of Secret Invasion and all its tie-ins look like readers are in for a wild roller coaster ride.
The Bad: If the last three big Marvel events are any indication, readers may be taken for a ride with eight months of Secret Invasion and all its tie-ins
Perhaps the latter cynicism was exacerbated by being suckered three times in recent memory:
1) House of M dragged along. And while the payoff was pretty significant, all it takes to erase it is one Editor-In-Chief with an itchy trigger finger: "No more 'No more Mutants'".
2) Civil War suckered me in with promises of excitement and an opportunity to jump back into some titles without having to buy and read 20 years of back issues. That's why I started getting Amazing Spider-Man again, after a 13 year absence. We all saw how that recently ended up.
3) Then I bought and read World War Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, and almost every spin-off title, because of the amazing story and art on the "Planet Hulk" storyline. The spin-offs were of varying quality, and the main story was decent. But that ending... I honestly felt "suckered".
Which leaves me wondering... Am I going to end up buying Secret Invasion and a bunch of tie-ins, only to have Bendis and Marvel tell me in the end that it was just a dream sequence or something like that? Or do I finally get to look back at a satisfying ending and say, "It was all worth it!"?
The Bad: It's pretty clear you have to be following Bendis' other titles, Mighty Avengers and New Avengers to know what is going on in the first issue of Secret Invasion. In fact, when Luke Cage gets the call and races the New Avengers to the Savage Land, with the pissed-off Mighty Avengers close behind - it almost felt like I was reading a New/Mighty Annual with a big crossover, rather than the first issue of a year-long mega-event.
The Good: I didn't mind, because I was already reading both titles. I particularly relished Luke Cage and his group getting the upper hand over Stark and his cohorts, since I favor the team dynamic of the New Avengers more than that of the Mighty Avengers. (I'm still trying to shower off the ick-factor of the naked metallic post-op Tony Stark/Janet Pym Ultron.)
The Good: The dialog took me back to a more innocent time, with Stan Lee's theatrical dialog. "That suit of yours ain't gonna hurt me. You know that. Actually, what I mean to say is Tony Stark would know that. I ain't entirely sure who you are. But I know if you don't want me to open this, then I'm doin' it."
The Bad: That dialog sounded like a high school theater class' attempt at adapting Shakespeare with modern dialog: "And why couldn't anyone tell?" "These are the questions. And she's not the only one. There are others. I know this to be fact."
The Good: Leinil Yu's artwork is vastly improved over his previous New Avengers work. This is certainly due to the addition of Civil War inker, Mark Morales, to give some weight and definition to Yu's scratchy lines. Laura Martin's dynamic colors also ramp up the energy.
The art on cityscapes and structures is terrific. The Iron Man's armor, the baxter building, and the splash of the F-22 Raptors taking off from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier really crackled with energy. (Again helped, undoubtedly, by the solid inks and vibrant coloring.... just to give credit where credit is due.)
The Bad: Yu's pencils on New Avengers tends to fade out or get muddied in the coloring. I personally don't mind it on that title, because of that book's street-level feel. On the other hand, although it looks to also prominently feature the New Avengers, Secret Invasion is going to involve hundreds of brightly-festooned heroes duking it out in close quarters, firing cosmic blasts and repulsor rays. This frenetic activity absolutely demands that the art be as distinctive as possible.
His figures and faces are often wonky. Why does every female look like Maria Shriver? I'll readily admit that I like my comics heroines well-endowed, but it's icky when women are actually drawn with gigantic boobs but so emaciated they look like they came out of an infomercial about Ethiopian refugees. Note to the artists: It's not sexy or powerful when you can see their ribs. (Delete the "rib lines" and draw their torsos wider than their forearms. It'll add ten pounds and make the look less jarring.)
The Good: We got a few really cool reveals as to who is a Skrull in disguise. These are characters should be familiar to the average reader, and so shocking that the conspiracy could run so deep.
The Bad: I fear that in the end, we're going to find out that practically everybody has been a Skrull all along, and this is going to be another way for Joe Q to wipe out 25 years of many characters' continuity... and the banner on every title nine months from now will read "Brand New Day"... and I'm going to have to buy extra copies of every title just so I can burn them in protest!
The Bad: Price increase to $3.99.
The Good: There is no good. Especially when the 33% price hike is accompanied by a drop in the paper quality. These are trends that the comic companies are quietly trying to slip past us, hoping we won't notice. And I don't want to hear that there are "extra pages". Podcast transcriptions of interviews with Stan Lee do not add value for me. And the cute cartoon of Joe Q. does not fool me: "Cup O' Joe" was just a 3-page ad for Marvel trades that are only marginally related to Secret Invasion, if that.
The Skrully: We've taken a close look at some of the things I think are Good and Bad about the first issue of Secret Invasion. But what about the "Skrully"?
It wouldn't be spoiling anything to say that there's three main plot lines running through the first issue: 1) A Skrull transport ship crashes down in the Savage Land. The New Avengers and Mighty Avengers (separately) fly to that prehistoric preserve to investigate who was in the ship; 2) Iron Man, Hank Pym and Reed Richards try to figure out why the Skrull Elektra was undetectable; 3) The orbital S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite has at least one Skrull infiltrator.
Each of those three stories has a major cliffhanger conclusions. One of them was decent, comic book fare - but the other two were jaw-dropping, "Oh, crap" endings. In spite of any minor negatives I might have mentioned earlier, these two endings were well worth the price of the comic and certainly succeeded in making me want to keep reading the series. The art on the last two pages (if we ignore the garbage filler in the back) was spectacular.
Some final notes: Bendis was on G4's Attack of the Show: (http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/videos/21058/The_Loop_OneOnOne_with_Brian_Michael_Bendis.html) His most memorable quote - with a straight face: "I don't retcon... I just don't do it."
Did anyone else notice that Dr. Strange was conspicuously absent from the first issue - even though his teammates on the New Avengers were in the thick of things? The more I think about it, the more I suspect the whole bunch of "Illuminati" are skrully.
****And a little SPOILER WARNING**** Finally - I couldn't resist: This story gives new meaning to the old adage, "The butler did it!"
Posts: 21256 | From: PA | Registered: Aug 2002
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